Films Viewed in 2016, the Final Entry: October, November, and December's New Coming of Age Stories

October

Honeytrap (Dir. Rebecca Johnson, 2016): In Brixton, London, fifteen-year-old Layla gets sucked into gang activity.

From Rotten Tomatoes: HONEYTRAP is the harrowing rite-of-passage drama inspired by a real-life crime of love, betrayal and murder in 2009. Featuring an international cast, the movie stars Jessica Sula (Skins, ABC Family's Recovery Road) Lucien Laviscount (Fox's Scream Queens), Naomi Ryan (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) and Ntonga Mwanza (LEAVE TO REMAIN). Girlhood and gang culture collide in HONEYTRAP as 15-year old Layla (Sula) contends with bullying at a new school by transforming herself inside and out. The teen's compulsive journey for love and acceptance soon becomes fatal in this cautionary tale based on headline news adapted by writer/director Rebecca Johnson.

The Confirmation (Dir. Bob Nelson, 2016): A divorced father (Clive Owen) and his eight-year-old son (Spencer Drever) spend a rather predictable weekend together, but when a valuable toolbox gets stolen, the search for the thieves will turn into a true family bonding.

Mark Dujsik from RogerEbert.com: “This is a smart, effective coming-of-age tale about a boy figuring out that there are gray areas to life's moral choices.” 

November

Morris From America (Dir. Chad Hartigan, 2016): The romantic and coming-of-age misadventures of a 13-year-old American living in Germany. 

From Rotten Tomatoes: Critics Consensus: Morris from America adds some novel narrative twists to its father-son story -- and gains added resonance thanks to a powerful performance from Craig Robinson.

December

Moonlight (Dir. Barry Jenkins, 2016): A timeless story of human self-discovery and connection, Moonlight chronicles the life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.

From Rotten Tomatoes: Critics Consensus: Moonlight uses one man's story to offer a remarkable and brilliantly crafted look at lives too rarely seen in cinema.

Films Viewed in 2016, cont.: July, August, and September and Women Empowered

Cutie and the Boxer (Dir. Heinzerling, 2013)

This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role as her overbearing husband's assistant, Noriko finds an identity of her own.

On its simplest level, “Cutie and the Boxer” is a documentary about a couple who could be sort of the Bickersons of the art world. Lurking just beneath, however, is a painful, powerful portrait of the struggle and sacrifice required to create, and the cost that it can demand. (Bill Goodykoonz, The Atlantic)

Mustang (Dir.  Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)  

Early summer. In a village in northern Turkey, Lale and her four sisters are walking home from school, playing innocently with some boys. The immorality of their play sets off a scandal that has unexpected consequences. The family home is progressively transformed into a prison; instruction in homemaking replaces school and marriages start being arranged. The five sisters who share a common passion for freedom, find ways of getting around the constraints imposed on them.

Mustang tells a straightforward story of female empowerment, but it’s the way it tells that story that makes it deserving of all the accolades it’s received, including an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film. Though the movie has won (superficial) comparisons to The Virgin Suicides, it has a more distinctly female perspective and is too close to its subjects to feel voyeuristic. The trouble begins in the first 10 minutes of the film, when some nasty gossip and a misunderstanding turns innocent fun into a minor sexual scandal, leading the girls’ relatives to increasingly shut down their access to the outside world. The Turkish-born French director Deniz Gamze Ergüven balances out the film’s creeping claustrophobia with quiet (and not-so-quiet) acts of rebellion, unexpected humor, and warmth, and the result is a tender and fresh coming-of-age film that honors the bonds of womanhood and sisterhood without taking them for granted. (Lenika Cruz, The Atlantic)

Margarita with a Straw (Dir.  Shonali Bose, Nilesh Maniyar, 2014)

A rebellious young woman with cerebral palsy leaves her home in India to study in New York, unexpectedly falls in love, and embarks on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery.  

“Margarita, With a Straw” is one of the least hand-wringing movies ever made about a character with significant disabilities. Born with cerebral palsy, our heroine here certainly has her physical limitations and related psychological setbacks, but it’s her adventurous spirit (abetted by supportive family and friends) that sets the tone in Shonali Bose’s winning sophomore feature. Like her first, 2005’s “Amu,” this tale is rather Westernized in the telling, with narrative feet planted in both India and the U.S. That factor, good reviews and the pic’s crowdpleasing nature should guide it from a successful festival run to various format sales in numerous offshore territories, with niche theatrical sleeper status possible. (Dennis Harvey, Variety) 

 

Our First Autry Museum of the West Presentation: The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

The Autry Museum of the West

January 2017, What Is a Western? Film Series:
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

 

Part of the series What is a Western? Film Series

Saturday, January 21, 2017, 1:30 p.m.

The Autry: Wells Fargo Theater

Admission: 

Included With Museum Admission / Free for Autry Members

RSVP/Reservations: 

Space Is Limited / Reservations Recommended

RESERVATIONS

About the Event

Selected by guest curators Robin Murray and Joseph Heumann, the January/February films consider the importance of water in the arid West. Murray and Heumann are the authors of Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment and a number of other studies of ecocinema.
In The Ballad of Cable Hogue, its “little guy” protagonist, Cable Hogue (Jason Robards), stands for democratic views of progress but still exploits the natural world. As a working-class miner, Cable also uses water rights policies to build himself a small empire. Because Cable builds his business by exploiting natural resources, he also helps construct a modern world where technology takes his place. Rated R.

Directed by Sam Peckinpah  | Starring Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, and David Warner
Screened in 35 mm

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

Eco-Films on Different Platforms: April, May, and June 2016 Screenings

April

Blockbuster: The Martian (dir. Ridley Scott, 2015)

Despite a narrative focused on bringing astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) home from Mars, The Martian places ecology at its center. As Watney explains in a video blog entry in the film, "In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option: I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this." Because of this focus on scientific solutions, The Martian is the best example of ecocinema I've seen in the theatre this year. As an expert botanist, Watney draws on his knowledge of the natural world in order to survive on what seems like a lifeless planet. Watney even declares, "Mars will come to fear my botany powers." Watney recognizes the need to draw on nature rather than technology for survival and constructs a livable space using natural elements and bi-products instead of artificial (and perhaps toxic) chemicals.

Independent Documentary:  

The Garden (dir. Scott Hamilton Kennedy, 2008)

The contemporary South Central Los Angeles urban farm explored in Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Garden (2008) encourages sustainable practices, but as scholars have lauded, the documentary also engages effective narrative strategies and presents powerful messages regarding environmental injustice and racism. With its condemnation of environmental racist attitudes of Los Angeles council members and activists, The Garden spends the time to document the history of the fourteen-acre urban farm and illustrate its benefits to South Central LA community members. The garden provides not only food and communal income. It also serves as a sacred space in which community members gain self-worth as they commune with the plants they grow 

May

Disney's Live Action Remake:  

The Jungle Book (dir. Jon Favreau, 2016)

In this reimagining of the classic collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, director Jon Favreau uses visually stunning CGI to create the community of animals surrounding Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a human boy adopted by a pack of wolves. The appearance of a villainous tiger named Shere Khan (voiced byIdris Elba) forces Mowgli's guardian, the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), to shepherd the child to safety in the "man village." Along the way, the boy meets an affable, lazy bear named Baloo (Bill Murray), as well as a snake with hypnotic powers (Scarlett Johansson) and an orangutan (Christopher Walken) who wants to harness the power of fire. Lupita Nyong'o, Giancarlo Esposito, and Garry Shandling also lend their voices to this adventure tale.

Critics Consensus from Rotten Tomatoes: As lovely to behold as it is engrossing to watch, The Jungle Book is the rare remake that actually improves upon its predecessors -- all while setting a new standard for CGI.

June

YouTube Sensation: Under the Dome (dir. Chai Jing, 2015)

Jing Chai’s Internet sensation Under the Dome is universally heralded by reviewers in the U.S. and Europe. Each reviewer first notes how the online sensational feature-length “Ted”-like talk drew more than 200 million views from Chinese audiences in the few days before being taken down by Chinese government censors. But as Steven Mufson of The Washington Post notes, the documentary also “alters the way we see the world around us.” As a high-tech Silent Spring, Under the Dome applies a rhetoric and structure similar to that of Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore’s an An Inconvenient Truth (2006) with one major difference, its exclusive focus on pollution in the cities of Mainland China.

 

Selected "Overlooked" Films and Videos Viewed in 2016: Coming of Age, January-March

January:

Dope (dir.  Rick Famuyiwa 2015). Stars,  Shameik Moore,  Tony Revolori,  Kiersey Clemons 

From Rotten Tomatoes: A critical hit and audience favorite out of the Sundance Film Festival, in DOPE, Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is carefully surviving life in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles while juggling college applications, academic interviews, and the SAT. A chance invitation to an underground party leads him into an adventure that could allow him to go from being a geek, to being dope, to ultimately being himself. (C) Open Road

February:

Big Hero 6 (dir. Don Hall,  Chris Williams 2014). Stars: Ryan Potter,  Scott Adsit,  Jamie Chung

From Rotten Tomatoes: With all the heart and humor audiences expect from Walt Disney Animation Studios, "Big Hero 6" is an action-packed comedy-adventure about robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, who learns to harness his genius-thanks to his brilliant brother Tadashi and their like-minded friends: adrenaline junkie Go Go Tamago, neatnik Wasabi, chemistry whiz Honey Lemon and fanboy Fred. When a devastating turn of events catapults them into the midst of a dangerous plot unfolding in the streets of San Fransokyo, Hiro turns to his closest companion-a robot named Baymax-and transforms the group into a band of high-tech heroes determined to solve the mystery. (C) Disney

March:

Diary of a Teenage Girl (dir. Marielle Heller 2015). Stars: Bel Powley,  Alexander Skarsgård,  Kristen Wiig

From Rotten Tomatoes: Like most teenage girls, Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley) is longing for love, acceptance and a sense of purpose in the world. Minnie begins a complex love affair with her mother's (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend, "the handsomest man in the world," Monroe Rutherford (Alexander Skarsgård). What follows is a sharp, funny and provocative account of one girl's sexual and artistic awakening, without judgment. (C) Sony Classics